1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles, and more specifically to a vehicle including a pair of suspension assemblies suspending a pair of front wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is proposed a variety of off-road vehicles (e.g., Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles (ROVs)).
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,896,371B2 discloses a vehicle which includes a pair of front wheels, a pair of rear wheels, a body frame, an engine and a steering wheel. The body frame is supported by the pair of front wheels and the pair of rear wheels. The engine is supported by the body frame, and drives the pair of rear wheels. The steering wheel is connected to the pair of front wheels via a steering shaft, a pitman arm and a pair of tie rods.
In order to suspend the pair of front wheels, double wishbone type suspensions are provided at a forward region of the body frame. The suspensions include a pair of upper arms, a pair of lower arms, and a pair of shock absorbers. The upper arms are connected to the respective lower arms by a pair of front wheel hub carriers. Each tie rod passes through between the upper arm and the lower arm and is connected to one of the hub carriers. Thus, the driver's operation on the steering wheel is transferred to the steering shaft, the pair of tie rods and then to the pair of hub carriers, and consequently the pair of front wheels are steered.
If the vehicle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,896,371B2 is to be configured as a front-wheel drive vehicle, it is necessary to have a drive shaft also passing through between the upper arm and the lower arm, in addition to the tie rod. In this case, there must be a sufficient space between the upper arm and the lower arm for the tie rod and the drive shaft.
Particularly, in cases where a steering mechanism of a rack-and-pinion type is utilized, due to the size of the rack-and-pinion portion, it is required that the tie rod be disposed at an upper location, so the upper arm must be disposed at an upper location. This makes it impossible to make the suspensions compact.